OFFICIAL TRANSFORMERS TOYS NEWS

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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

^Agreed. If this really is going to come out at $250 and there's no subsequent reduction on that price, then I won't be touching Dinobot and will stick with the original version - which, flaws aside, is still a fun toy with a good alt mode and robot mode (the panels of dino-bod that make the arms not locking into place are what really harm the original toy, IMO - I can live with the dangly robot legs in beast mode). It's a shame, because Hasbro and Takara have been doing some generally excellent work lately.

A premium collector piece does need to be something pretty amazing to command a $250 price tag, and this just doesn't have it and looks almost as messy as the horrible CHUG design.

...Maybe they should have just gone for the Transmetal designs to make life easier...
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Clay
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Post by Clay »

Magazine pics of Dinobot w/the Maximal crew.

I really hope the price is not what's been solicited, because the ensemble shot is great.

Also, Takara are making Street Fighter II themed Transformers now.
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Clay
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Post by Clay »

While Power of the Primes is starting to trickle out in stores, we have our first packaging shots of masterpiece Barricade.
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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

Those SFII redecos look like Brave toys...
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Clay
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Post by Clay »

Warcry wrote:I honestly think that the difficulty in translating Dinobot's character design to a toy is overstated. His CGI model really isn't any more different from the original toy than a lot of his first-season counterparts. The Masterpiece even seems to basically transform the same as the original, save for the fake chest -- the dino legs become the robot arms, the robot legs tuck into the beast's torso and the entire rear third of the beast mode just gets set aside to turn into a giant "weapon" (which is the main reason why he doesn't look much like he turns into a raptor).
I was thinking about this again this morning, and I really disagree. The basic parts layout isn't the problem, but rather it's the proportions. The raptor body is supposed to be compact while the robot is big and bulky all over. Using the raptor legs as the robot arms is straightforward enough, but the problem comes from subtracting the mass that makes the robot legs from the dino torso while leaving enough left behind to make the robot torso look bulky. Granted that it's probably hollow (which is where the dino head goes), but still... the extra mass of the tail isn't used since that's separate and used as the weapon. And they didn't cheat by having a pile of stuff make up the robot's back. The 360 view shows that it's fairly accurate to the animation model all the way around.

I know the magazine scans show the rough progression of the transformation, but I can't tell from them whether it's something that's elegant with a lot of steps or a process that's a complete nightmare, but the results are on either end are astounding, panel lines be damned.

I just wish that the thing cost less. It's still too expensive.
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tahukanuva
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Post by tahukanuva »

I think he looks great, personally. Hopefully the transformation ends up more "fun puzzle" complicated and not "what is this step telling me to do?" complicated.

Anyway, if you preorder him from Amazon Japan he's slightly less than 200 USD shipped, and it'll probably go lower before the release date. That would put him more in the Megatron and Ultra Magnus price range, which seems fair for the level of engineering involved.

(He's still, easily, going to be the most expensive figure I own, but really that's an honor Dinobot deserves.)
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Clay
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Post by Clay »

Leader class Blackout is a thing now, y'all.

Not sure what's going on with his hands, but otherwise looks quite nice.
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Warcry
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Post by Warcry »

That sure was a long time coming.

I'm amazed by how clean-looking the alt-mode is. It doesn't even look like it transforms in that pic!
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Clay
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Post by Clay »

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Warcry
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Post by Warcry »

Nice! I like jet Blast Off well enough as a solo figure, but he doesn't quite look right in combined mode. Could see myself picking this up so I can have the best of both worlds.
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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

I like the look of Elita-1. She looks cool.
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Clay
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Post by Clay »

They're making Duocons too... here's Battletrap.

That's... much better than expected. Where's Flywheels?
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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

That''s adorable. I love the Duocons for no other reason than I had them as a child. They were rubbish, but I liked them all the same.
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Clay
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Post by Clay »

Here's masterpiece movie ironhide.

Pretty nice, but I'm not sure how I feel about the toes sticking out from the back of the truck. The cannons storing on the sides is consistent with Prime and barricade's weapon storage, even if it's ungainly.
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Warcry
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Post by Warcry »

I can't say that screams "Masterpiece" to me. The truck mode is imperfect, as you say. He also looks too small vs. Bumblebee. He looks like a normal pickup in the alt-mode shots, but the Topkick is a gigantic truck, like the size of a U-Haul moving van.

It does look like a nice Ironhide figure, but probably not something that'd be worth the MP markup.
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Sunrunner
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Post by Sunrunner »

Clay wrote:They're making Duocons too... here's Battletrap.

That's... much better than expected. Where's Flywheels?

I really like the look of that, reminds of Victory Multiforce. Maybe we'll get new versions of Wingwaver etc. too?
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Hound
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Post by Hound »

Sunrunner wrote:I really like the look of that, reminds of Victory Multiforce. Maybe we'll get new versions of Wingwaver etc. too?
OMG, I WANT THE WHOLE MULTIFORCE!!!
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Clay
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Post by Clay »

Masterpiece shadow panther

I am only surprised that I am surprised.
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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

Love that they included the mutant head of the toy!
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Brendocon 2.0
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Post by Brendocon 2.0 »

Big fan of Takara sacking off the idea of releasing new toys in favour of just actively antagonising Warcry now.

AKA say hello to anime version Prowl.

http://news.tfw2005.com/2018/02/15/mast ... ber-358614
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